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Sekali sekali perlu menulis perkara yang terlintas di mindaThere are times you must write what crossed the mind

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Below are earlier posts in another site written a year ago(almost)Night DriveAugust 1, 2008 by spinangSunday 6th July 2008My mother-in-law was down with fever since Tuesday. We took her to a doctor on Wednesday and she got the medication.Her condition did not improve over the next 4 days. On Sunday my sister in law went to check on her and she took her to the clinic again. Mom was referred to a hospital for a thorough check.My wife and sister in law decided to send her to the Batu Pahat hospital where her son is a specialist.

Tuesday 8th July 2008Posted in Family mattersNo Comments »The Causeway WalkJuly 2, 2008 by spinangOn 29th June 2008 we put up at the Puteri Pan Pacific in JB because we will visit 2 places one in Singapore the other in JB.On 30th June 2008 we started to be ready early because we should be in Singapore for an appointment with the Zakat Unit at Islamic Religious Council of Singapore at 9.30 a.m. So we walked, it took less than ten minutes from the hotel to the taxi stand which caters for travellers to Singapore.At the taxi stand we were given the first surprise of the day. It’s a Monday morning and taxis were not taking people to Singapore on that particular Monday because of a massive congestion at the causeway. The jammed condition occurs every day because people commute to work between JB and Singapore.The normal case is Malaysians working in Singapore but there are a few of the reverse.So we were caught with the masses going back to work after the weekend. This is the classic case of insufficient factors considered before doing an action. We did not consider the possibility of taxi drivers not leaving for Singapore.We had to be in Singapore because we had planned with the Islamic religious Council for a briefing at 9.45 a.m.Fearing that worst we decided to walk from JB to Woodlands in Singapore.

Sometimes, that cars will take you faster cannot be true. So the eight of us walked along the causweway. We walked ahead of the cars inching their way into the island republic on the causeway.The walk was about twenty minutes only, the queue at the Singapore Immigrations’ checkpoint in Woodlands another fifteen minutes and the queue for the taxis another five minutes.Most importantly we made it on time.Tags: Add new tagPosted in ExperienceNo Comments »The bus rideJuly 2, 2008 by spinanglast weekend my fellow colleagues who are also on the Ikaz committee and yours sincerely went to Johor Baru.We took the express bus from Melaka to Johor Baru (JB).On the bus the writer did not try to recall when he last took the express bus for a trip but when starting to write this he started recalling. It was way back in the 1990’s when he was a student reading for his first degree. Well the busses have changed, so have the roads and the government policy for express busses in Malaysia.On the trip to JB the bus has one level for passengers and seating arrangement has one seat on the left and two seats on the right of the ailse. the bus is more comfortable now because such an arrangement allows for bigger seats for each passanger. Those days there were two seat on each side of the ailse and a passenger will have to squeeze if the body is abundant horizontally, now you can choose the seat on the left of the ailse if you are one of such physique.the air conditioning in this particular bus, is better, but the writer found it uncomfortable since it was raining on the way to JB but the trip back felt better because it was a fine sunny late afternoon on Tuesday. The return trip was on a different type of bus, it has upper and lower decks, the Former has three seats in row but the lower deck has only two row of seats with the ailse in the middle, so each passenger gets a window view and a bigger seat of course. The ride too was also more relaxed and comfortable.Well the main point here is the comfort level in express busses has increased a few notches since 1990’s.Posted in ExperienceNo Comments »Why ’spinang’June 27, 2008 by spinangSpinang is the name of a place at Segamat, in the southern state of Johore in Malaysia. It it not related to my choice of spinang for my name at this blog. Spinang to this writer is the cobination of sireh and pinang. where sireh is the betel plant whose leaves are chewed traditionally with tobacco, a dash of lime, pinang, gambier and other spices. Normally pinang or areca nut is taken together with betel leaves; when chewed giving a saffron juice which gives a somewhat similar effect such as when smoking, probably.Being a Southeast Asian, sireh and pinang are familiar to me, and I choose to use the name spinang in this blog. Can’t I?Posted in UncategorizedNo Comments »My first time at bloggingJune 27, 2008 by spinangThis is the first time I am writing here. The idea came to me about an hour ago. “Why don’t I blog, many have done it”So here goes, the first thing I want to share is about today.Its the last day of a five day stretch for 25 of my colleagues undertaking a translation course. They say its fun during the first few days. Thats because the facilitator, one Dr. Wan Amiza, is a lively, cheerful and dedicated person. Today they are doing serious translation, commisioned jobs, so their faces carry serious first time translators profoundity, most of them, the rest are old hands or happy though unlucky ones who do not look too worried doing translation jobs. They are reading English and writing to Malay. Good luck to them all.Ini adlah kali pertama saya menulis blog. Ide untuk menulis in timbul kira-kira sejam yang lalu. ” Ramai orang lain yang dah menulis di blog, aku pun patut menulis.”Jadi inilah permulaannya, pertama sekali saya ingin berkongsi mengenai hari ini.Hari ini adalah hari terakhir bagi 25 orang rakan sekarjaku yang menghadiri kursus penterjemahan selama 5 hari. Pada hari-hari permulaan kursus mereka kata seronok berkursus. Itu mungkin kerana penatar kursus, yang bernama Dr. Wan Amiza, adalah seorang yang aktif, ceria dan bersungguh-sungguh.Hari in mereka membuat penterjemahan sebenar, kerja penterjemahan berbayar, kebanyakkan mereka mempamerkan muka-muka poyo penterjemah kali pertama yang bersungguh-sungguh. Yang berbaki sedikit lagi, bersahaja menterjemah kerana mereka dah biasa atau mereka memang jenis tak kisah. Mereka membaca bahan Bahasa Inggeris dan menulis semula ke Bahasa Melayu. Selamat maju jaya kesemuanya.